Microsoft gave further details Monday of a group of server and virtualization products due next year that will set the tone for how well the company will compete in the enterprise software market.
It announced pricing and licensing details for Windows Server 2008, its long-awaited server product due for release in February, and revealed that the commercial name for its virtualization product will be Hyper-V, formerly known as Viridian. The announcements came on the first day of IT Forum, its largest customer conference in Europe.
On its Web site, Microsoft is billing the official launch of Windows Server 2008, which will take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, as “the most important enterprise launch in company history.” That launch will also showcase Visual Studio 2008, the company’s application development tools, and SQL Server 2008, its database.
The company is vowing no more delays: Microsoft is “absolutely on schedule” for the launch of Windows Server 2008 in February, said Andrew Lees, corporate vice-president for server tools and marketing, on Friday.
Microsoft will release five versions of Windows Server in February, Lees said: Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server and a version for Itanium-based systems.
Within six months of the Windows Server 2008 launch, it will also release Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter versions incorporating its Hyper-V virtualization software. Pricing for Windows Server 2008 will be no more than one percent higher than for Windows Server 2003, the company said. The following prices are for a one-off purchase of a perpetual license, although volume licensing customers may get cheaper deals:
• Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V: US$971 (with five CALs)
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V: US$3,971 (with 25 CALs)
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V: US$2,971 (per processor)
• Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems: US$2,999 (per processor)
• Windows Web Server 2008: US$469
When the versions incorporating its Hyper-V virtualization technology become available, they will be priced as follows:
• Windows Server 2008 Standard: USUS$999 (with five Client Access Licenses (CALs)
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: US$3,999 (with 25 CALs)
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter: US$2,999 (per processor)
Microsoft said on Monday it will also release a stand-alone hypervisor for running other operating systems, called Hyper-V Server, priced at US$28 regardless of the number of processors. “If you have a machine that doesn’t have Windows at all, then you would buy that in order to run instances of say Linux or Sun,” Lees said.